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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25649107">The way you are</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/carmspace/pseuds/carmspace'>carmspace</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Haikyuu!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>A little bit of angst, Almost Married Couple, BokuAka Week, BokuAka Week 2020, Established Relationship, Fluff, Love, M/M, Moving In Together</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 12:41:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,068</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25649107</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/carmspace/pseuds/carmspace</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Bokuto and Akaashi decide to move in, but Bokuto isn't really confident</p>
<p>"Bokuto didn’t imagine that moving in would have been so hard. He had imagined himself throwing everything he had into some large boxes, loading them into the car and then leaving immediately for the new house he would share with his lover. Yet it was he who pointed out to him that it was actually a long job, which also required some attention."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Bokuaka Week 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The way you are</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Bokuaka week day 2: moving in</p>
<p>Also, if there are some grammar mistakes I'm sorry!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bokuto didn’t imagine that moving in would have been so hard. He had imagined himself throwing everything he had into some large boxes, loading them into the car and then leaving immediately for the new house he would share with his lover. Yet it was he who pointed out to him that it was actually a long job, which also required some attention.<br/>After years of relationship, he and Akaashi finally decided to move in together. It was a surprise to him that the younger had asked him, but Bokuto accepted willingly.</p>
<p>
  <em>«We could start living together here», said Akaashi with a little smile on his face.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Koutarou had lifted his gaze from the League leader board to lay it on the dark-haired guy who had just entered the living room. They had been engaged for years, since high school, and until then they had only spent several days together in the same house without really making it official. He had always found that a funny thing because they looked like two college roommates, but they slept in the same bed and not only that. At that time Bokuto had realized he had to start looking for a place where he could live alone and, who knows, maybe invite Keiji to live with him – but the last part was a secret, and for this reason the boyfriend had preceded him.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«I don’t think that’s a bad idea at all», he replied with a smile after placing the newspaper on the low table in front of the sofa. He got up to go towards Akaashi and once close he kissed him tenderly on the lips. «I can begin to gather my things even now».</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«We should think first about how to fix the closet and other things», spoke the other, slightly restraining his enthusiasm, even if for a good reason. Bokuto complained for a few seconds and at the end he surrounded to the caresses and attentions of the other.</em>
</p>
<p>He knew it wouldn’t be the simplest thing in the world, but he loved challenges. He already knew Akaashi’s habits, of course, but the question was different: spending entire days together, being side by side constantly discovering little secrets and details that no one else knew, that was really what awaited them. Everyone told him that cohabitation was not easy, but he had said to himself over and over again that everything would be fine and that there was nothing that Keiji didn’t know about him.<br/>Or so he hoped. After all, he wasn’t even sure, but he needed to convince himself of it in order to not be crushed by the fear that Akaashi would change his mind about him. He had to be sure of himself and absolutely wanted to: his philosophy of life – even if he didn’t like to call it that, he didn’t like labels – was to face everything with positivity and let it be the one to win on its opposite, or he would never be able to change anything of his everyday life.<br/>He was closing one of the last boxes, the one full of photographs and memories. Of all the things he was most concerned about the one that contained ceramics and glass that, according to Akaashi, were never enough. He looked at the clock and he noticed that the truck that would help him to transport them all was arriving, and at that point he would only have to take the car and go to the new – even if he had already spent many days there – home.</p>
<p>It had not been easy. He had been afraid for weeks before a speech of his boyfriend made things clear once and for all. He remembered when he had set foot in the house smiling, carrying two boxes on his wide shoulders, and Akaashi had looked at him with a dreamy smile and bright eyes of joy. He had erased all his doubts for that day and together they had dedicated only to unpacking, then the same night they made love. He felt better than ever before and realized that he had made the right decision by agreeing to take that big step. At first the euphoria of the novelty had filled their lives and allowed Koutarou to put aside his few but important insecurities, but it was only a matter of time: they presented themselves in a clear way.<br/>He had become strangely awkward, almost automatically ashamed of some of his behaviours. He had seen Akaashi look at him in a different way, and this only generated more fear in him, causing him to act even more absurdly than usual. Koutarou feared, deep down, that he was annoying and unbearable, as he knew that Keiji feared to be boring and insignificant.<br/>He and all their friends found Akaashi extremely interesting, but Koutarou had never really tried to talk about his doubts with others, especially with his boyfriend, and this mainly because he was not so often taken by worries that he needed to talk about it. More often, the other one confided in him.<br/>He was afraid he wouldn’t be the same in his eyes if he showed that hidden fear. Yet once again Keiji had surprised him, managing to put him back on track and to return the golden days of their lives.</p>
<p>
  <em>He was on the couch watching the volleyball game on TV. It was actually an old match that he had already seen a couple of times, but he never got tired of the good actions and strategies of the game, especially just before a tournament. Every time he couldn’t help but think of Fukurodani, of afternoons in the gym and victories with his teammates. It was on that field that he had met Akaashi, on that field they fell in love and decided never to break up. Sometimes came into his mind the idea of buying a ring and surprise Akaashi by proposing to him in that special place – of course in intimacy, without anyone except them: he certainly didn’t want to make Keiji uncomfortable. However, he had decided to wait some more: after all nobody gave them a set time to do it.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Keiji came to him and smiled. Koutarou did the same and moved close his face to give him a light kiss, raising with one hand the glasses that since a couple of years have always been present on the youngest one. They looked at each other for a few seconds.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«Now that I’ve finished checking those things I was telling you, we could go to the gym and train a little», Keiji proposed leaning slightly on him.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Although he had stopped playing volleyball officially unlike himself, Akaashi continued to train to avoid losing everything he had committed to.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>But he’d already asked the other guy to practice the day before. Bokuto remained silent for a few seconds: he did not want to be annoying, or heavy. He knew that normally he would not even let him finish the sentence – especially in a period of break from official training like that – but since they had started to live together he had decided to change some things to make Akaashi more comfortable.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>He wrapped his shoulders with one arm and smiled. «You should rest. We went to the gym yesterday», he said.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>He went back to watching the game and for a while silence fell. Then the television suddenly turned off and Bokuto turned around and noticed that the other one was holding the remote control in his hands. He seemed annoyed, and Koutarou instinctively emptied: it was difficult to make Akaashi nervous like that.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«Are you okay?» he asked stupidly. It was obvious that something was wrong.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«No, are you okay? You’ve been strange for weeks, since shortly after you came here», he reshuffled it. Bokuto knew that Akaashi had reached a level of security with him to make that kind of talk. He made him smile as a thought: he felt special. But he immediately returned to focus on the issue.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«I don’t want you to get tired, you worked a lot today», he justified himself. He lied: he knew that Akaashi was not so tired, and that if he had proposed it, it meant that he really wanted to do it. That’s what he told him.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«You know that’s not true. You’ve been acting weird lately. I gave you time to settle in, I tried to think of everything that could be a problem, I overthought about it and in the end I could not even give me an explanation. I just want to understand what happens, if I did something wrong».</em>
  <br/>
  <em>It was typical of Akaashi to blame himself for what he couldn’t understand. Bokuto could ideally imagine the cogs in his brain working quickly to find a solution they could not find, and realized that he had been foolish not to talk to him about his thoughts. How could he expect that thing to work if he didn’t communicate? Bokuto was the first person to offer his support to the other, and yet he made a trivial and avoidable mistake. All he had to do was, quietly, talk about it. It seemed so simple to him at that moment that he wondered why he had not thought of it before – and a small voice in his mind explained that he had decided to do so only because he had noticed that Akaashi was not comfortable with that silence.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«I am afraid of being unbearable and exaggerated», he revealed to him.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>He noticed a flash of amazement crossing his eyes. Akaashi even stood up.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«How?» he asked him as if he had not heard.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Koutarou looked away. «I’m not gonna repeat it».</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Nothing moved for a few moments, then he saw the boy sitting again and with one hand Akaashi forced Bokuto to turn towards him. Their eyes met and Bokuto noticed him smiling, which reassured him. The other hand also reached his face, which was now enclosed between them. Keiji gave him a kiss full of confidence, that was just what he needed. When they separated, they continued to look each other in the eyes.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>«I love you just the way you are», he simply said to him without too many words. «You don’t need to change anything to make me feel better».</em>
  <br/>
  <em>It was a bit like a revelation. He knew that it wasn’t really a new thing, but he realized that he needed a moment like that to go back and fill it with that confidence that he had gradually lost in those weeks. No great speeches were needed: just the right words, a sincere smile and a nice kiss were enough to change his whole way of seeing things.</em>
  <br/>
  <em>He looked at him happy and asked him to go to training, more relaxed and happy; Keiji gladly accepted.</em>
</p>
<p>From that moment on he had understood many things and everything was going well. Several of their friends had joked that they were behaving like a married couple now and that they only had to make it official, but they were not in a hurry. They trained together when they could, Akaashi kept coming to his games and they got used to each other’s rhythm. Moving was not easy at first and for a few days he really feared that it would be a disaster, but at that moment it seemed to him the most natural thing in the world: he could not even think about how he had done before. Every morning he had the chance to wake up and kiss his boyfriend, they had breakfast together, they made love when they wanted to and everything seemed perfect.<br/>Koutarou knew he was a tremendously noisy person, totally opposed to his boyfriend, and they were fine with it. They never got bored, and every opportunity was great for laughing or joking, or to steal a caress or a hug. He loved their life together and would not give it up for anything in the world. Of course their little discussions had increased, but he had learned to manage them and not to make it a bigger issue than the real: he was a little less melodramatic, and perhaps Akaashi was more extroverted than before. Koutarou liked that aspect of their life. Actually, if he thought right, he liked everything about it.</p>
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